AFT upholds woman officer’s conviction

CHANDIGARH:Almost a decade after a general court martial (GCM) awarded the first-ever conviction to a woman Army officer for alleged professional misconduct, the Armed Forces Tribunal has upheld the verdict but reduced the quantum of sentence from dismissal from service to a severe reprimand.

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21

Almost a decade after a general court martial (GCM) awarded the first-ever conviction to a woman Army officer for alleged professional misconduct, the Armed Forces Tribunal has upheld the verdict but reduced the quantum of sentence from dismissal from service to a severe reprimand.

In July 2009, Capt Poonam Kaur of the Army Service Corps was tried on 10 charges under the Army Act for disobedience of lawful command, acts unbecoming an officer, levelling false accusations with an intent to defraud.

The GCM had held her guilty on seven charges, but acquitted her on three charges pertaining to disobedience and intent to defraud.

Almost a decade after a general court martial (GCM) awarded the first ever conviction to a woman army officer for alleged professional misconduct, the verdict has been upheld by the Armed Forces Tribunal, but has reduced the quantum of the sentence from dismissal from service to a severe reprimand.

The AFT’s Chandigarh Bench held that the punishment awarded to her was not commensurate with the charges. The Bench has ordered that she be notionally reinstated in service and deemed to have been discharged from service on the completion of her term of engagement. As a short-service commission officer, she had completed three years and nine months of service and had one year and three months’ service left for her term to end.

Poonam had been posted to an ASC battalion in Kalka, near Chandigarh. In 2008, she had levelled allegations of physical and mental harassment against her superior officers, but the subsequent court of inquiry held her blameworthy of professional and personal misconduct.

Partial relief

The tribunal ordered that Capt Poonam Kaur of the Army Service Corps be notionally reinstated in service and deemed to have been discharged from service on the completion of her term of engagement
Though she will be entitled to terminal benefits, she will not receive any salary for the intervening period from the trial to the notional date of discharge